Game Update Notes - June 11th, 2013

June 11 Content Release Notes

LIVING WORLD

Dragon Bash

The Ship’s Council of Lion’s Arch is sponsoring Dragon Bash, a celebration of the Tyrian spirit and resolve to defeat the elder dragons. Bash on dragon piñatas in cities and shoot fireworks at the giant holographic Shatterer dragon projected over Lion’s Arch. Revel in activities such as the Dragon Ball Arena and bet on moa racing. Across the countryside, players will discover mini-projectors that will test their mettle versus holographic dragon minions!

The celebration includes two must-see events: The fireworks show during the first weekend repeats every two hours, and attendees who watch the finale will receive a dragon helm. Then the week after, players can enter the effigy ceremony and witness the cultural representatives as they join the Captain’s Council in burning the dragon effigies in the Grand Piazza of Lion’s Arch. It promises to be an exciting time for all.

“Bash the dragon! Smash the dragon! May it never rise up again!”

General

Dragon Coffers have been added to the list of potential loot drops for all creatures in the world.

Lion’s Arch

Lion’s Arch has been decorated with Dragon Bash decorations. A projector has been set up, where the Lion’s statue normally resides, to display the holographic Shatterer dragon that will circle the city. Zommoros has dressed up for the occasion, and various kites, posters, torches, and targets have been placed throughout the city. Firework launchers have also been added for players to join in the celebration.

Players can enter the new Dragon Ball Arena activity, which takes place in the sewer beneath the city, by talking with Finolla in the Mystic Court.

In Farshore Ward, players can bet on their favorite moa to win in the moa race and win various prizes.

The Captain’s Council will appear in the Grand Piazza to inform and direct players to all of the Dragon Bash festivities.

Explorable Areas Leading to Lion’s Arch

The explorable areas leading up to Lion’s Arch (Queensdale, Kessex Hills, Brisbane Wildlands, Caledon Forest, Metrica Province, Plains of Asford, Diessa Plateau, Wayfarer Foothills, Snowden Drifts and Gendarran Fields) has been seeded with mini hologram projectors that will create hologram minions to bash. In addition to normal loot drops, these minions have a greater chance of dropping Dragon Coffers and candy.

A new rock formation now appears in the Gendarran Fields.

All Major Cities

Heralds have been updated to announce the arrival of the Dragon Bash festival.

Dragon piñatas can now be found in all of the major cities for players to bash and collect festival candy.

Fireworks Event

During the first weekend, between 9am PDT June 14 and 9am PDT June 17th, a grand fireworks show will repeat every two hours. Players who witness the finale will be awarded a container holding three account-bound commemorative dragon helms, one for each armor class in the game.

Achievements

A new Dragon Bash category has been added for achievements involving the Dragon Bash festivities.

The Dragon Bash Experience meta-achievement will reward a set of Holographic Shattered Dragon Wings back item skin for players who have completed 10 out of the 14 total Dragon Bash achievements (Case Closed not included).

Fourteen new Dragon Bash festival achievements have been added. Please note that The Big Boom in the Big City, Case Closed, the Ceremony and Acrimony achievement line, and Burn Down The Dragons cannot be completed until additional Dragon Bash content is unlocked at a later time.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH

General

Added a new combat/movement toggle option: “Right-Click to Attack/Interact”.

World Polish

Living World

The chest that spawns after the Crazed Karka Queen is defeated is no longer limited to once a day.

Bloodtide Coast

Living Covington Pirates should no longer respawn when the player helps Bill and Hekja fight Risen Pirates.

Straits of Devastation

The Champion Ooze in the Zho’qafa event has been demoted to a veteran.

Personal Story

“Bad Blood”:

There is now a slight delay between the time the wind starts up and when it knocks the player off the wall. The audio cue has also been cleaned up to make it clearer.

“They Went Thataway”:

The Ministry guard now appears at the base of the stairs.

Items

Globs of Ectoplasm can now be salvaged into Piles of Crystalline Dust. This change should help Globs of Ectoplasm maintain a strong value in the economy and lower the cost of Crystalline Dust.

Master Tuning Crystals, Master Maintenance Oil, and Superior Sharpening Stone recipes now take more Piles of Crystalline Dust to craft. This change is to help these consumables maintain a high value with the new influx of dust.

Profession Skills

General:

Fixed a bug that caused sigils to be removed when the player died while transformed.

Fixed a bug that let teleport skills teleport players through certain walls, most notably the clock tower’s walls in The Battle of Khylo.

Fixed a bug that made line-of-sight checks frequently succeed when they shouldn’t.

Fixed a bug where skills that draw allied conditions would instantly cure any condition that was self-inflicted.

Elementalist:

Signet of Restoration:

This skill now has its cooldown reduced by the Signet Mastery in PvP.

Necromancer:

Parasitic Bond:

The healing from this trait will now display properly in the combat log.

Reaper’s Might:

Removed misleading text.

Reaper’s Touch:

Fixed a bug with this ability’s damage that caused an inconsistency when not traited with Spiteful Talisman. Damage while un-traited has been increased by 50%.

Spectral Grasp:

This ability will now pull the full 1200 range, instead of 900.

Spiteful Talisman:

This trait now works with Reaper’s Touch in PvE.

Ranger:

Coral Shot:

This ability now lists bleeding dealt at different ranges. Bleeding damage has been increased from a maximum of 2 to a maximum of 4 at a range of 900.

Signet of the Hunt:

This ability now displays a skill fact for the damage increase of its active effect.

Quicksand with Stone Spirit:

This skill’s facts will now display properly.

Warrior:

Counterblow:

This skill now has a range fact.

Endure Pain:

Updated the text of this skill and its buff to make it clearer.

Versatile Rage:

The effects of this trait will now only trigger once every 5 seconds.

Guardian:

Strength of the Fallen:

Fixed a bug with this trait that makes it lose health 33% slower while downed instead of the previous 11%.

Engineer:

Explosive Powder:

This trait now functions with detonating turrets.

Reserve Mines:

This trait now functions with other traits, such as Shrapnel, Steel Packed Powder, and Forceful Explosives. In addition, fixed a bug that caused the mines to not strip boons correctly. Explosive radius has been increased from 60 to 120.

Rifled Turret Barrels:

This trait no longer makes Rocket Turret fire invisible rockets.

Toss Elixir R:

All of the effects of this skill are now normalized to the correct radius of 180 units. Previously, some actions were only effective at 120 units.

Toss Elixir U:

This profession skill now functions with Acidic Elixir.

Mesmer:

Blurred Frenzy:

Updated the duration tooltip to indicate the actual duration of the evasion.

Structured Player vs. Player

Added a menu for custom arenas to reset to standard or tournament defaults from the configuration UI.

Added a name and owner search box to the game browser.

Added a default filter to the game browser to search for recently joined custom arenas.

Fixed a bug with ratings that caused inaccurate updates when players left before the end of a match.

Updated the matchmaking algorithm to better match new players.

Updated the ratings algorithm to reduce volatility.

Updated the profession icons on the map to use brighter team colors.

World vs. World

World Ability Points have been refunded to all players who earned them. Changes were made to Arrow Cart Mastery, allowing players to reallocate their points. This is a one-time reset.

Arrow Cart Mastery skills have had their range reduced to be better in balance with other siege weapons.

The WvW Ranks and Abilities tab now displays how many bonus rank-up chests a character has remaining.

Superior Siege and Omega Golem blueprints now have different icons from regular siege blueprints.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

New Items and Promotions

The Rich Dragon Coffer is now available in the Consumable category of the Gem Store for 100 gems each, or 5 for 400 gems and 25 for 2,000 gems. This special festival box always contains Dragon Bash candy and also has a chance to contain fireworks, a Mini Holographic Risen Knight, and rarely a Dragon’s Jade Weapon Skin Ticket. Rich Dragon Coffers contain all the same items as the Dragon Coffers* *that drop commonly from Dragon Bash enemies, but have better chances at rare items.

The Dragon Bash Mini Pack is now available in the Minis category of the Gem Store for 500 gems. The Dragon Bash Mini Pack contains three exclusive holographic minis to commemorate the Dragon Bash festival. If you place all three minis from the Dragon Bash Mini Pack in the Mystic Forge along with the Mini Holographic Risen Knight (which can be obtained from either Rich Dragon Coffers or Dragon Coffers), you will receive a Mini Holographic Colossus.

Polla, Biviane’s doll, is now available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store. This special doll commemorating Cobiah’s sister can be equipped in the accessory slot and is available for free to all players.

The Dragon Effigy Lighting Ceremony single-player instance, Memorials on the Pyre, can be accessed by talking to Inspector Kiel.

Festival planners have added effigies to the explorable areas leading to Lion’s Arch. Players who dance before the effigies will be granted a health bonus of up to 10%.

What better way of celebrating Dragon Bash than with an epic fireworks display? This bundle provides 10 charges of red, blue, green, and yellow display fireworks, as well as a one-time dragon fireworks finale which grants 50% magic find boost to all nearby allies watching the show.

Note: We understand how exciting fireworks can be, but if you drop the bundle you will lose all remaining charges of the display fireworks. If you had not used the finale fireworks, a bundle will be created at your feet that, if recovered, will allow you to still use the one-time dragon finale.

Starting Wednesday, June 19th

A new story character, Marjory Delaqua, can be found in the Dead End Bar, a single-player instance in the Eastern Commons of Divinity’s Reach.

A new cinematic will introduce Marjory Delaqua in talks with Logan Thackeray.

The Scene of the Crime, a single-player story instance, opens June 19th. Investigator Kiel will allow access when the story is progressed.

Players with Fast-Cast Ground Targeting enabled will need to stand nearly on top of the target to use the Investigation Kit.

Three of the missing suspects can be found in Lion’s Arch, the Gendarran Fields, and the Bloodtide Coast.

Starting Thursday, June 20th

The last two missing suspects can be found in the Snowden Drifts and the Caledon Forest.

After finding all the suspects, Inspector Kiel will grant the player access again to The Scene of the Crime to finish the story.

Returning to the Dead End Bar reveals extra follow-up conversations with Marjory and Kasmeer.

The hotfix will correctly set the meta achievement requirement for The Dragon Bash Experience to 8. And players who complete 8 of the required achievements will be rewarded the Holographic Shattered Dragon Wings skin.